The UI proposals in http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Proposals/New_UI look nice as well as more manageable than those of the 2.2.1 version. Just two little comments about them here.
1."Basescape" UI. Could you also display the remaining free room for new recruits in the upper-left corner? Maybe including the total figure of current recruits just beside the "PERSONNEL" header, while adding a text line named "BASE CAPACITY" or something similar to display the current total room of the base (being placed in the "base name" box, in the "personnel" box or as a different boxt located between both of them). Or maybe an alternative way...
2. "Research" UI. Would it be possible to indicate the total laboratory room in each base? Perhaps including a new icon (for example, a microscope) to identify this figure, at the same height than the names of the bases, and at the right of the two already existing icons with figures?
From what i've seen it shoudn't be that hard pielroja, actually i already thought about that. And if i ever make it to the base and research UI's then i'll probably put that stuff on the screen. It's just a matter of knowing the right variables and displaying them.
I agree with Drag D. It also more easy to implement it with resisable window.
I think resizable windows is gonna be hard to do no matter how the GUI looks, unless they are boxes filled with one color. So i don't know if it woudn't be a better idea to use the limited coding manpower for more important tasks like fixing bugs or adding new content to UFO:AI.
While SoulRipper's effort is a solid one i think that the proposal from here : http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Proposals/New_UI looks more stylish .
Yeah, i know what you mean, i like them too. Although thats exactly why i picked a different approach. In my opinion stylish glossy menu's and stuff like that look good on webpages, but for me, a game GUI, especially a Sci-Fi one should be heavy. And i also noticed that lot's of professional game productions stick with that attitude too. When designing i was keeping in mind GUI's like in these games:
Dawn of War, Sins of a Solar Empire, Gallactic Civilizations and a couple more.
Look up em' screenshots on google from those games if you like.
On another note, from what i've read, for now everything is mostly just propositions. Is there some wiki page or other place where somebody wrote down some guidelines for designing those UI's? I mean something like:
"1. In the future menu's are intented to be resizable, keep that in mind when designing
2. Window's and pop-ups are intented to be draggable in the future.
3. [Ideas about the general preffered style]"
I know beggars can't be choosers, but writing up some preferences really helps the artists. I don't know who, but somebody already wrote that somewhere on the forum.